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Introduction of Leadership And Change Management Assignment
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Leadership and change management in a company is the most important aspect. The present report is going to describe the change management in the UK based consumer goods company, Unilever. It presents that the process of change should be handled very efficiently so that it does not harm the performance level of the company. Various resources are important for handling the change effectively. The background of the study will provide the issues faced by the company. SWOT analysis is important for the analysis of the company. The models of Lewin and Kotter are important for explaining the changes.
Background of the organisation
I worked in the Unilever organisation as a finance manager. It provides consumer goods like soaps, toothpaste, cosmetics and many more. I had observed that the organisation goes through the changes in all departments regarding the strategy of cost-cutting. The matter has seen that they failed to demonstrate the changes in the company and as a result resistance occurs in this organisation. A critical analysis is important for the recommendation and changes and its successful application through the application of theories.
Changes in the company
The success of a company depends upon the recognition of changes in this company. Evaluation of the industry helps the organisation to stay competitive and Unilever announces leadership and organisational changes in their company (Unilever.com, 2022). The changes occur in-home care, refreshment and foods, personal care and beauty products.
Typology of changes
(Source: Unilever.com, 2022)
The change in the food and refreshment is currently happening and the home care service is getting improved. The company also gives focuses on internal changes and avoids external changes. The factor is that it creates an emergency and change in the external environment has to be done (Unilever.com, 2022). Involvement of people is most important here for facing the difficulties and finding solutions to the problem.
SWOT analysis
The SWOT analysis of Unilever is conducted below.
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Strength
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? Unilever operates in almost 190 countries around the world and leaves a footprint among the top brands.
? As per the research of March 2021, the company profits around 10,717.00 Cr (Canterino et al. 2020).
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Weakness
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? It has the weakness that it operates in an utter competitive market. In this field, it had to deal with the giants like Nestle (Smith, 2019).
? Another weakness of this company is that it bears the products that can be easily replaceable as substitutes are present in the market.
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Opportunities
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? Unilever has a good opportunity with the spread of globalisation that a large and diversified consumer base is coming to them.
? The growing business also helps in capturing the market of different countries (Holten et al. 2019).
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Threats
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? The threat of substitute products in the market is a problem.
? The presence of the big giants in the market is also a threat to this company (Watson-Gegeo, 2021).
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Table 1: SWOT analysis of Unilever
(Source: Created by the researcher)
The analysis of the organisation is done with the help of a SWOT analysis. It presents that the organisation has good profitability and it is the strength of this company. On the other hand, it also lacks the organisational culture and lack of communication seems to be a hindrance to the changes in the organisation.
Approach to change management
Change is important for organisational development. It helps in being competitive in the market and in becoming successful in their field. The approach of change management can be described through a table-
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Change
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No
? Flexibility reduction
? Command and control (Tucker, 2019)
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Yes
? For the growth of the company
? For making the leadership changes
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There can be different factors that can help in the contribution of facing obstacles to the implementation of changes-
- Change in the organisation is not easy and for this, the organisation has to face many obstacles. At the very beginning, nobody has a clear idea about the process of change and it mainly affects the employees and also the company.
- Stakeholders sometimes leave the company as they are not satisfied with the idea of the change. The employees sometimes also did not support the change. Changes in the organisation create disbalance and the employees also become demotivated.
Modes of change by using LEWIN’s and KOTTER’s Models
Organisational change refers to the change in culture, introduction of new technology, adaptation of new business processes, accepting new strategies and many more. In this factor, the model of Lewin and the model of Kotter play an important role (Sotarauta et al. 2021). Among the two, the model of Kotter presents the idea with very effective steps. They are-
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1. Creating a sense of urgency: A sense of urgency is created with the support of the people of the organisation. Unilever has made changes in their organisation regarding leadership and that is for they have to create a sense of urgency.
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2. Establishment of the guiding coalition: The selection of employees is very important here so that they can support the change of the organisation. The culture of an organisation is most important for the engagement of staff and Unilever can make change through this process in their organisation (Kilinc et al. 2020).
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3. Creation of a change vision: It is a very important step for making a change in the organisation. The change in the leadership process can happen through an effective vision of the present company.
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4. Communication: Communication is the most important step for any kind of action. Unilever can communicate with the employees to make changes in their vision. It helps in effectively handling the issues.
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5. Gathering others for acting on the vision: a manager can help to empower the action by removing all the obstacles to the change. Gathering people to work toward this vision is important here (Starr, 2021). Unilever has to gather others to make leadership changes.
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6. Creating short term wins: Short-term wins help to become motivated. Therefore the short term wins of Unilever can boost them for change management.
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7. Don’t let up: Continuous improvement can be done by analysing the success stories. Discussion of achievement can enable more success in the future.
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8. Making change stick: Leaders in this field can influence the culture through role modelling. The change in the organisation of Unilever can happen through the active assistance of the leaders.
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Table 2: Kotter’s model
(Source: Starr, 2021)
Resistance approach to change management
There are different factors that resist the change and the organisation is greatly influenced by this. Various factors like management influence the change approach (Outram and Parkin, 2020). In order to implement change within an organization, the management needs to take all these factors into consideration and initiate the process of changing eventually. The resistance approach can allow Uniliver to initiate the process of change management at the right time with the right approach. Further, the company can expect its resistance to change through the process of absorbing the changing environment within the organization (Kotamena et al. 2020). Immidiently after the process of resistance starts to be initiated within the company, the management can address the changes formally based on the capability of the workers to adopt the changes with time.
The process of resistance needs to be addressed formally and the key causes of the resistance are required to be outlined for a better understanding of the initiated changes (Dumas et al. 2018). The initiated and addressed changes need to be adopted by the workforce for the betterment of the organization in current times. Lastly, the management of the company can engage the right resistance management at the right time for the success of this change management within the organizational environment.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Unilever has always been on the verge of changing its organizational culture based on the situations they were operating in various business markets. After a detailed assessment of Unilever's approach to change management, it can be assessed that the company has initiated changes very well and balanced the environment based on that. Further, it can be seen that the level of certainty within the organization is based on the changes to resistance for the organization under different circumstances. Additionally, the organization is in major need of a reshuffling in terms of its organizational improvement, especially based on the resistance change management process.
The SMART recommendations for Unilever are discussed below.
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Recommendation 1: Planning the changes carefully by facilitating communication between the workforce can be effective to initiate change management (Gurr and Drysdale, 2020).
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Specific
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Improving communication among the workforce can enable organizations to discuss and initiate changes successfully.
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Measurable
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It can reduce the communication barrier between the higher management and the workforce.
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Achievable
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This can be achieved at least 75% successfully through proper communication.
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Relevant
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Communication is extremely necessary for initiating changes.
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Time-bound
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3 to 5 months
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Recommendation 2: Discussing the changes among workers and pushing for change resistance can be helpful for Unilever to initiate changes.
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Specific
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Change resistance is the easiest way to initiate changes and help the workforce to absorb them successfully.
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Measurable
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It can help in minimizing the awkwardness among workers regarding the new changes.
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Achievable
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There is a 90% chance that the workforce is going to adopt these changes based on discussion and resistance.
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Relevant
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It is relevant to facilitate clear communication within the workforce.
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Time-bound
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6 to 8 months
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References
Canterino, F., Cirella, S., Piccoli, B. and Shani, A.B.R., 2020. Leadership and change mobilization: The mediating role of distributed leadership. Journal of Business Research, 108, pp.42-51.
Dumas, C. and Beinecke, R.H., 2018. Change leadership in the 21st century. Journal of Organizational Change Management.
Gurr, D. and Drysdale, L., 2020. Leadership for challenging times. International Studies in Educational Administration, 48(1), pp.24-30.
Holten, A.L., Hancock, G.R. and Bøllingtoft, A., 2019. Studying the importance of change leadership and change management in layoffs, mergers, and closures. Management Decision.
Kilinc, A.C., Bellibas, M.S. and Polatcan, M., 2020. Learning-centred leadership and change in teacher practice in Turkey: Exploring the mediating effects of collaboration. Educational Studies, pp.1-19.
Kotamena, F., Senjaya, P. and Prasetya, A.B., 2020. A Literature Review: Is Transformational Leadership Elitist and Antidemocratic?. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL, POLICY AND LAW, 1(1), pp.36-43.
Outram, S. and Parkin, D., 2020. A tailored undertaking: the challenge of context and culture for developing transformational leadership and change agency. Delivering Educational Change in Higher Education: A Transformative Approach for Leaders and Practitioners, pp.9-19.
Smith, P.H., 2019. Leadership and change, intellectuals and technocrats in Mexico. In Mexico's Political Stability: The Next Five Years (pp. 101-117). Routledge.
Sotarauta, M., Kurikka, H. and Kolehmainen, J., 2021. Patterns of place leadership: institutional change and path development in peripheral regions. In Handbook on City and Regional Leadership. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Starr, K., 2021. What future for school business leadership? Recent change and looming possibilities. Management in Education, 35(2), pp.108-116.
Tucker, R.C., 2019. Post-Soviet leadership and change. In Patterns in post-soviet leadership (pp. 5-28). Routledge.
Unilever.com, (2022). Change management in Unilever. Available at: https://www.unilever.com/news/press-and-media/press-releases/2019/unilever-announces-leadership-and-organisation-changes/ [Accessed on 20th April, 2022]
Watson-Gegeo, K.A., 2021. Introduction: Leadership and change in the Western Pacific. In Leadership and change in the Western Pacific (pp. 1-55). Routledge.
